. Carrying unnecessary weight in the vehicle or in the trunk of a vehicle will require more power to move the vehicle and will lower the fuel mileage . Don’t use your trunk as a storage space ! Carry only what you need in the trunk or any were in your vehicle . Leaving unneeded items in a vehicle can become a bad habit which can result in more and more unneeded weight being hauled around in the vehicle , costing you fuel mileage and money .
Though it is most common that a smaller car with smaller engines will use less fuel , it is not always the case . It is true that a smaller vehicle with a smaller engine will normally deliver better fuel mileage in the city (unless it is overloaded with weight) . How ever you might be surprised how good some bigger automobiles are on fuel , when they are driven at highway speeds .
I owned a small car with a 4 cylinder engine that performed very well and run at top efficiency and delivered 33 miles per imperial gallon or 27 mpg US , if I drove it at 50 to 55 miles per hour (80 to 90 kmh) .
I have also owned 4,000 pound cars with 5.0 liter V8 engines , that performed very well and would deliver 35 mpg (imperial) or 28 mpg (US) if I drove them at 50 to 55 miles per hour .
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In some cases it is believed that the tail gate on pick-up trucks can increase the wind resistance at highway speeds and cause increased fuel consumption . It would likely depend on the design of the truck and the length of the box as to how much the tail gate wind resistance would have on the fuel mileage . The best way to tell if the fuel mileage of your pick-up truck is effected by the tail gate wind resistance , would be to do fuel mileage tests with the tail gate on the truck and then with it off the truck or down . Driving with the tail gate down may not be legal in some places . Also damage can be a result of driving with the tail gate down . The tail gates on most pick-up trucks are very easily removed . If you find the fuel mileage is better with the tail gate down or off , there are other options too . Tail gate substitutes are available . Some are made of cloth belting and others are made of metal mesh . The wind can pass through these and the and the wind resistance is eliminated .
Box covers are also an option . Box covers also give some degree of security to anything you carry in the box . A soft box cover if it is of good quality and fits well , could lower wind resistance and could improve fuel mileage . A poor quality or poor fitting soft box cover could increase wind resistance and lower fuel mileage . A hard shell box cover that fits properly will eliminate any tail gate wind resistance and could help to improve fuel mileage .
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With a pick-up truck the same would apply as the junk in the trunk ! If you carry unnecessary items in the box of your pick-up truck , that unneeded weight will cause more fuel to be burned , and a pick-up can acquire a lot more weight then the trunk of most cars .
Newer vehicles are getting better on fuel and steadily improving . Unfortunately as the fuel mileage gets better , the fuel prices keep going up and we working people just can’t get ahead .
Some future vehicle possibilities are below
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